History comes alive at the Little Museum of Dublin: Ireland at Italia ’90 (VIDEO)

Prof James Harrington on Jack’s Army and how the Irish can’t give up their glory and defeat even 26 years later.YouTube

The Little Museum of Dublin has brought history to life with 15 short films covering nugget-sized pieces of Ireland’s history. Each week IrishCentral will release one of the new clips. This week’s topic is Ireland’s soccer team’s historic presence at the 1990 World Cup in Italy – Italia ‘90.

The series, "The Little History of Dublin," tells the story of this great city in 15 bite-sized clips. Made with the generous support of Aer Lingus and the Department of Foreign Affairs, the films are now finding a global audience on IrishCentral.

Their topic this week is Jack’s Army, when the Irish soccer team made it to the quarterfinals of the World Cup in 1990 and, to be honest, the entire country went insane. From chanting in the streets to hit tunes dedicated to our boys in green reaching number one in the charts, the Irish Army was a force to reckoned with…and we’re still talking about our success and tragic defeat 26 years later.

The Little Museum, voted the number one museum in Dublin on Yelp, is located on St. Stephen’s Green, in a beautiful Georgian building. The collection, created by public donation, reveals the history of the city over more than 100 years, from Queen Victoria’s visit to U2’s global success. Entry to the museum is by guided tour only and most tours sell out.

Speaking about their new series of videos, Museum Director Wissame Cherfi explained the idea behind them. “The idea was to create a series of videos that are fun and informative,” he said. “I’ve always thought that the best way to learn and remember something is to have fun while doing it. We also wanted the films to be accessible to a broad audience, reaching young and old alike.”

“Casting Jamie Harrington as the main character in the films was instinctive,” said Wissame, “as I have worked with Jamie on a couple of projects in the past and I knew he was the right fit. His natural talent allowed us to experiment a lot in terms of directing and creating the right character so that everyone can relate to him.”

The Little Museum of Dublin had great fun making these films and we really hope you enjoy watching them – and that you will, hopefully, learn something new about Dublin's rich history.